VALENTINE'S DAY

Valentine's Day is celebrated on February 14 as a festival of romance and affection. People send greeting cards called valentines to their sweethearts, their friends, and members of their families. Verses on many valentines contain tender thoughts. Other valentines may include humorous pictures and sayings. But almost all ask, "Be My Valentine."

Valentine's Day comes on the feast day of two different Christian martyrs named Valentine. But the customs connected with the day have nothing to do with the lives of the saints. They probably come from an ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia which took place every February 15. The festival honored Juno, the roman goddess of women and marriage, and Pan, the god of nature.

Valentine's Day is not a business or bank holiday. Schools and businesses remain open as usual. But, during the weeks before the festival, merchants sell valentines and decorations for Valentine's Day parties and dances. School children decorate their classrooms with bright red paper hearts. On Valentine's Day, women and girls receive gifts, candy, or flowers from their favorite "valentines."

Valentine's Day Around the World

In the United States and Canada, children exchange valentines with their school friends. In some schools, the children hold a classroom party and place all the valentines in an attractive box that they have made. At the end of the day, the teacher or one child distributes the valentines. Some young persons send valentines through the mail without signing their names. They simply write, "Guess Who." Elementary-school children like to make their own valentines from paper doilies, red paper, wallpaper samples, and pictures cut from magazines. Sometimes they buy do-it-yourself valentine boxes that contain all the materials needed to make valentines. They often send their largest and most elaborate valentines to their mothers and teachers.

Older students enjoy Valentine's Day dances and parties. They may make candy baskets, favors, and place cards, all gaily trimmed with cupids and red hearts. Men often send their wives or sweethearts flowers or boxes of candy instead of valentine greeting cards. The candy boxes are usually shaped like hearts and tied with bright red ribbon.

In Great Britain, children sing special Valentine's Day songs and receive gifts of money, fruit, or candy. Housewives in the county of Rutland bake tasty Valentine's Day buns that contain caraway seeds and plums or currants. Years ago, children in Norfolk County played a game similar to tag on Valentine's Day. The person tagged had to pay a forfeit of some small valentine token. In the town of Norwich, a young suitor would secretly leave a basket of gifts on his loved one's doorstep. Then he would knock on the door and run away.

In Italy, people in some areas hold a Valentine's Day feast on February 14. In Sicily, some young unmarried women get up before sunrise on Valentine's Day. they stand by their windows, sometimes for hours, watching for a man to pass the house. Each girl believes that the first man she sees, or someone who looks like him, will become her bridegroom within the year.

In Denmark, some persons send pressed snowdrop flowers to special friends on Valentine's Day. The Danes call one type of valentine gaekkebrev, or joking letter. The sender writes an original rhyme but does not sign his name. He uses a code of dots, with one dot representing each letter of his name. If his young lady guesses his name and tells him, he rewards her with an Easter egg on the following Easter.

Beliefs and Customs

Years ago, people held many beliefs in connection with Valentine's Day. One of the oldest beliefs said that birds choose their mates on February 14. An old English superstition warned that it was bad luck to bring snowdrops into the house before Valentine's Day if unmarried girls in the home hoped to be married before the end of the year.

Most Valentine's Day customs were concerned with romance or the choice of a mate. Single girls had many ways of learning the identity of their future husbands. Sometimes a girl wrote her boy friends' names on bits of paper and rolled each name in a little piece of clay. She then dropped the clay into water. The first scrap of paper to rise to the top was supposed to contain the name of her true valentine. Some unmarried girls pinned five bay leaves to their pillows on the eve of Valentine's Day. They pinned one leaf to the center of the pillow and one to each corner, and believed they would see their future husbands in their dreams if the charm worked.

In Derbyshire, England, young women circled the church 12 times at midnight and repeated the words, "I sow hempseed, hempseed I sow, he that loves me best, come after me now." After that their true valentine was supposed to appear. Some young ladies rose early on February 14, looked through their keyholes, and hoped to see two objects. If a girl saw only one object in her first peep through the keyhole, she supposedly had little chance of being married that year.

In some places, an unmarried girl would strike her forehead with a folded rose petal. If the petal cracked, the girl knew that her valentine loved her. When a girl finally married, she could no longer take part in romantic Valentine's Day customs. The poet Robert Herrick wrote of the bride:

She must no more a-maying

Or by rosebuds divine

Who'll be her valentine.

World Book Encyclopedia Volume 18